Category: Music

Long Day

At work, my group has a quick check in meeting every day at 10:30am. As today’s meeting was wrapping up I almost said, “happy Friday, everyone.” (Pause while Robert stands up to flip the record*) I stopped myself just in time. At the last possible second I realized that today is Thursday, not Friday. Shit.

I do that a lot. I can’t tell if I’m doing it more often now or if I just feel the heartbreak more acutely or what. I don’t know.

Today hasn’t been the longest work day in history, but maybe it’s in the top 10? Nothing bad happened (except for my calendar snafu) but it’s just been… long.

28 minutes until my shift ends. We started watching Goodfellas last night. I don’t know if we’ll finish it tonight, but either way we will be sure to constantly stir the gravy.

*We’ve spun a couple of Rush records today, some Yes, some Genesis, some Pink Floyd, some Cream, some Jeff Beck, some Jimmy Page with and without Led Zeppelin (I forgot I found the Death Wish II soundtrack at a used record store at some point in the distant past and I don’t think I had listened to it prior to this afternoon). Currently we’re listening to Blind Faith. When I flipped the record it was from side one to side two (obviously) which means “Sea of Joy.” Good! It also means “Do What You Like.” Not so good. Oh well.

Early Morning Play Time

I mentioned last night that I stupidly added a song to the 50 songs in 90 days pipeline even though I was almost finished with the whole project and there is less than a week left before it ends.

What I didn’t mention was that I put all of the guitar tracks, both lead and rhythm, on the song this morning before work. I could have spent that time mixing a song or something and actually getting closer to being finished but no… I played the guitar.

I did it and I am not sorry.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 84/90

I over did things without making any major progress. Somehow… I guess.

I mixed a song. That’s good. Before I did that though I added a song. MIDI bass and drums down as well as a melody and lyrics. The pipeline is up to 54 songs now. Why did I do that?

Random Lunchtime Thoughts

Just some random things going through my tiny little brain right now.

I don’t get hungry anymore. In this post-gastric bypass universe I go from feeling comfortably satisfied, skip right past normal hungry feelings, and catapult straight to oh my god I am so hungry it hurts why does my stomach hurt so much?

Normally that isn’t a big deal. I have something to eat and I feel better. Some days though, like the last couple of days, it gets a bit annoying. Some days I just can’t get out in front of the problem. I eat something, then an hour or so later I feel the hunger pains coming back. Normally I can go about three hours without any issues. Sometimes, like when I was visiting my father in the hospital and had other things on my mind, I could go twice that without my stomach perking up at all.

Today I finished breakfast at around 8:00am. I started feeling it at a little before 11:00am. I was drinking water at the time and had to pause for 15 minutes before I could eat again so I didn’t get any food into my empty stomach until 11:20. I had a quick snack. I was done at 11:26. The hunger pains were back in full force by 12:11pm. What the hell, bro? I went on lunch at 1:00pm so I made myself wait to eat anything more. I didn’t want to fill my new little stomach pouch before lunch and then throw off my schedule even more. I was able to sneak in a little water which helped a little but come on, stomach… you have to do better than 45 minutes, right?

Change of subject. Television shows that are currently being worked through.

  • Mindhunter on Netflix. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first of two seasons. It’s creeping me out. Good stuff.
  • Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. I think I am an episode behind. The new season is good. I was nervous when I heard it was moving to Los Angeles, but so far it’s firmly grounded in New York where it belongs. It is also nice to have Paul Rudd back again.
  • Agatha All Along on Disney+. Episode three is out today, I think. I’ll watch it tonight. I’m enjoying it so far.
  • Rings of Power on Amazon Prime. The last couple of episodes feel like a small step back in terms of quality. Word on the street is the next two (the last two episodes of season two) are going to be spectacular. I’m all in.
  • Dark on Netflix. I liked the first season. I’m halfway through the second season and it is struggling to hold my attention.
  • The Orville on Hulu. Season three is a bit of a slog. The episodes are WAY too long and not good enough to justify the time commitment. It’s not bad, it’s just not that good.
  • Futurama on Hulu. Gold. Absolute gold.
  • Exploding Kittens on Netflix. It’s not bad, but I’m having a hard time staying invested in it.
  • Coming Soon: Penguin on Max. The first couple of episodes are out but I haven’t watched them yet. I’ll get to them soon.
  • Coming Soon: Daryl Dixon season two on AMC. The new season kicks off this coming Sunday. I’ll be there.

Dude… that’s a shit load of TV. I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten a couple of shows too.

I have some linens that I took from my father’s apartment. The plan is to donate them somewhere. My sister suggested the MSPCA at Nevins Farm in Methuen. It’s right around the corner from my house. I wasn’t sure if that was something they’d take so I Googled it today. Sure enough, they take bedding. They don’t take pillows or knitted blankets though. If I have any of those I’ll have to bring them somewhere else.

I also took a combination turn table, AM/FM radio, CD player, cassette player from his apartment. I haven’t found a home for it yet. I am thinking that tomorrow I’ll plug it in next to my desk and listen to old Rush records on vinyl while I work. That sounds like a good plan to me.

Okay then. Here’s hoping the hunger pains are taken care of for a few hours at least. I’m crossing my fingers… and symbolically crossing my bypassed digestive system too… whatever that means.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 83/90

I mixed one song last night, just before bed. That’s all I had time for. 47 songs complete. Three more to finish the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. Three more on top of that to empty my in-progress pipeline.

I have 11 songs that were started in September. It would be more fun if there were 15, don’t you think? I have this weird compulsion to add four more songs. I think this whole project might be getting to me. We’ll see.

47 Songs Down

47 songs down and three to go in order to complete the 50 songs in 90 days challenge for 2024.

If I pick out 5-10 songs from this year’s batch to make an “album”, it’s safe to say that this one won’t be included. It’s not the worst song, but it’s not terribly good either. Can 7/8 time swing? I guess not.

Summer Music Becomes Fall Album

I wasn’t going to do this… and then I was. I am going to have over 50 news songs thanks to this year’s 50 songs in 90 days challenge. In the past I’ve picked out about 10 songs from a successful 50/90 and made them into an “album”.

I wasn’t going to do that this year. Then about a month ago I thought maybe I’d do something. Maybe instead of picking 10 out of the 50+ songs I would pick five and do half of an album.

Today I started listening to some of the recordings from July. The first three songs I listened to went onto the list of songs to redo. Then the list grew to four of the first five songs. I stopped listening at that point. I think I need to be way more critical of myself. I’m usually ridiculously over critical, but for some reason today I was thinking this batch of songs might not be that bad. We’ll see if I change my mind over the next few days.

Yeah, we’ll see.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 82/90

A good day. I put vocals and lead guitars on the last three songs. I also mixed the last song that was started before September 1st.

There are 46 songs mixed and complete. There are seven more ready to mix. 53 in total. There are eight days left. I have more days than songs left to mix. I think I am in good shape.